The Newton Community Farm Commission gathered on Thursday to discuss plans for the Newton Community Farm, whose strong winter season continues to bring high revenue. 

Farm Manager Greg Maslowe explained that the farm’s revenue increase was driven largely by expanded staffing and the recent stretch of harsh winter weather in New England.

“Deep freezes—which we definitely had a deep freeze—are really, really good for the New England environment,” Maslowe said. “This is not a usual winter for us recently, but this is unusual in just even my 20 years on the farm.”

After New England received up to 24 inches of snow in a blizzard last week, Maslowe stressed that the farm’s increase in production was not only due to the winter storm, but also an increase in the farm’s staff.

“So last year in the budgeting process, I went to the board, and I pitched increasing farm operation staff, because it’s a common problem that farms are understaffed, and that means that, you know, in the middle of the harvest season, it’s tough to get anything else done besides harvesting,” Maslowe said.

The decision to hire new people was based on the desire to increase the farm’s efficiency and produce turnover, according to Maslowe.

“We can take more produce, because we have more produce, because we have increased staff,” Maslowe said. “I think that those increases that you’re talking about are directly related to decisions that we made about staffing.”

Commissioner Ted Chapman raised the question of whether the more money spent on staff was beneficial to the farm or if it was too expensive.

“I have not looked at it to be honest, but I feel confident that we made more,” Maslowe replied.
We increased sales more than we spent on labor.”

Commissioner Patrick Costello raised concerns about how the increase in sales had exceeded previous expectations and what effect that had on donations to the Newton Food Pantry and produce allocation.

“How does it work if sales at the farmers market exceed expectations?” Castello said. “Selling lots of produce, one implication is more revenue, right? And that’s what Ted’s noticing. What are the other implications? And what I mean by that is, does that mean that you have less produce to donate to the Newton Pantry, or does it mean that you grew more produce?”

Maslowe indicated that they did not take any produce away from the Newton Food Pantry, and that they just had more produce to go around.

“If you look at the budget versus actuals, we also completely clobbered our budgetary goals for donations to the food pantry, like by a lot, like $7,000 … it wasn’t that we were taking food from the food pantry to sell [at] the farmers market. We were just growing more food.” Maslowe said.

The farm’s lack of land in Newton has made it hard to keep up with the increasing demand, according to Maslowe. 

“We’ve been looking for more land in Newton, because it seems like every time we grow to fill the demand, the demand just grows,” Maslowe said.

Over the years, the farm’s growth has contributed greatly to Newton’s community. 

“It’s good to know you’re making a product that everyone wants,” Maslowe said.